First Azerbaijan ammonia-urea complex on course for 2016: SOCAR

LONDON (ICIS)--Azerbaijan's first combined ammonia-urea complex is confidently expected by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to launch in 2016, the company said on Thursday.

SOCAR had made good progress with the investment by definitively setting its targeted installed capacities as 1,200 tonnes/day of ammonia and 2,000 tonnes/day of urea and by selecting Samsung Engineering as its main contractor, it added.

Further progress was made this week by choosing Denmark's Haldor Topsoe as licensor for the ammonia process design and technology to be used at the complex, set to be constructed from this year in Sumgait, 30 kilometres north of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, the company noted.

The ammonia plant would be based on natural gas feedstock while the urea plant would run with Stamicarbon technology, SOCAR said.

SOCAR specialists have paid study visits to urea plants in Egypt, Jordan and Iran in preparation for the Sumgait investment.

The company is yet to announce a precise start date for the construction of a proposed twin ammonia-urea complex in Georgia.